Improvement in cartridge-shells for magazine fire-arms



GEORGE H. DUPEE.

Improvement in Cartridge Shell for Magazine Fire-arms.

No.123,622. I Patented Feb.13, 1872.

fig. 4 15 a fl? 1262/ Z67) 71 izesms.

UNITED STATES PATENT OF I \VINOHESTER REPEATING-ARMS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARTRIDGE-SHELLS FOR MAGAZINE FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No, 123,622, dated February 13, 1872.

State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Cartridge-Shells; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which .said drawing constitutes part of this specification, and represents in- Figures 1 and 2, side views of two classes of cartridges, in which the head or rim is of the same diameter as the "shell; Fig. 3, the blank as struck, preparatory to forming the rim; Fig. 4, a longitudinal section of the same; Fig. 5, a longitudinal section completed.

This invent-ion relates to an improvementin metallic shells for cartridges for fire-arms, the object of the invention being to strengthen the cartridge in the immediate vicinity of the rear or closed end, whereby I am enabled to produce shells having the head or rim in diameter equal to or less than the shell, the use of such shells being designed with special reference to that class of breech-loading fire-arms termed repeating-arms, in which the cartridges are supplied to the barrel from a magazine or tube beneath the barrel, or in such position relative to the barrel that the cartridges may be readily transferred from the magazine to the barrel. the magazine be in diameter larger than the rim of the cartridge. Therefore, by constructin g cartridges, as hereinafter described, with the head of no larger diameter than the shell,

I am enabled to reduce the diameter of the magazine to that extent, anditconsistsin employing sheet metal thicker than that ordinarily used, as more fully hereinafter described, retaining nearly or the full thickness near the closed end, drawing it down 'to the usual thickness for the shell; the head formed by upsetting the metal instead of doubling the metal at the rim, as in the usual construction. 7

I will proceedto describe the manufacture of shells shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5, it being understood that this peculiar form of shell is not my invention.

In such arms it is necessary that I take, first, a blank from a metal which is in itself of sufficient thickness to resist the strain brought upon the rear end of the shell by the explosion-say aboutthree times, little more or less, the thickness usually employed. I then, by suitable dies and punches, not altogether unlike the punches now in use, draw up the shell, retaining nearly or quite the full thickness at the rear end, as seen in Fig. 4, the shell contracted atthe rear, the contractin g of the shell commencing in the proper position to form the groove around the shell, the shell from this point forward being drawn down to about the usual thickness. This blank I then place in suitable dies, which will grasp around the shell at the contracted portion, and then a follower or other suitable instrument is forced down on the end, upsetting the metal to form the rim, as seen inFig. 5, and leaving agroove around the shell forward of the rim, by means of which groove the retractor grasps the rim to withdraw the shell from thearm. Without the thick metal whichis thus formed around the groove and neck of the cartridge the. explosion would expand or tear the metal so much as to make the withdrawal uncertain or this class of cartridge inefl'cctual, and by this construction all the advantage of a reinforcement by introduction of other metals is avoided, anda shell produced at little if any more cost than ordinary shells. The fulminate or exploding device may be applied ini any desirable manner. The rim is perfectly solid and therefore competent to sustain a much greater strain than the ordinary doubled rim.

I claim as my invention- A cartridge-shell in which the rim is made by an annular groove formed in the shell, and the metal at the said groove and its vicinity in the process of manufacture left or made thicker for the purpose of strengthening the shell at that point, substantially as described.

G. H; DUPEE.

"NVitnesses: I

- O..F.-W1NCnEsTEn,

J onN H.,-SHUMw-.&Y. 

